Two-Wheeled Madness

Arizona Trail Magic, Day Four Saddle sores, it turns out, are almost as painful while pushing a bike as they are riding on one. It seemed odd, but as I pushed, lifted, lowered and generally coaxed my laden bike on the narrow trail of Oracle Ridge, the pain in my left butt cheek was growing unbearable. Pushing, and occasionally riding, on this rather questionable surface through the dark, I was experiencing more than my fair share of bumps and bruises, nicks and jabs from rocks and sticks and flora that seemed to have it out for me. It sounds silly, but at this early, pre-dawn hour, I was fully convinced that nature was out to get me and that these inanimate objects possessed a desire to inflict pain and suffering on me at every opportunity. One of the more rideable parts of the Oracle Ridge trail Growing frustrated at the seemingly random, yet capricious discomfort I was being subjected to, I decided to do something about the pain that I could  prevent--sort of. Stoppin...

Arizona Trail Magic, Day Three Rolling down Broadway in the pre-dawn darkness, I was leaving Tucson on a mission to rendezvous with the famous Mt. Lemon and its two infamous roads: Reddington, and the Catalina Highway. For a city of its size, Tucson rather quickly degrades into sandy washes just outside of its eastern limits. The Arizona Trail descends into one of these washes, deep with sand, making forward progress extremely difficult, and in the dark, precarious. Fortunately, I was not alone, as some distance behind me and gaining quickly was a pack of coyotes on their noisy early morning prowl. Their yip and howls were the perfect pairing with the moon that was rising over the city to my west. The Reddington Road is famed for its ATV and 4WD traffic and I had read about numerous close encounters between both of these and AZTR racers in past years. This wasn't my primary reason for leaving so early in the morning, but it was certainly nice to be climbing completely alone o...